A few months ago, I picked up a Patagonia Figure Four soft shell jacket during one of their web sales. Over the last year or so, I ame to the conclusion that using a hard shell on the bike was unnecessary. Yes, a hard shell would keep the rain or snow off of me, but I still ended up wet from perspiration that couldn’t escape. Ironically, I had first ordered a hard shell from Patagonia, but in the wrong size. Since stock of the proper size was gone, I ordered the Figure Four, a jacket that had always intrigued me, though I never had a good reason to actually buy it.
Since fall finally arrived a few weeks ago, I’ve been wearing the jacket every morning. It does strike a nice balance between wind and water protection and breathability. I’ve ridden through at least two rainy commutes, and the jacket has keep me dry and allowed a reasonable amount of sweat to escape. I sense that the water-resistant finish will lose its power over time, but even so, I think the shell will keep me comfortable enough. The jacket will likely also change my (and probably simplify) my winter riding wardrobe. I’m thinking that for temperatures above freezing, the jacket with my trusty wool t-shirt beneath should be plenty. When the temps dip below freezing, perhaps down to 20, I would swap the t-shirt for a long sleeve crew, and below twenty, go back to the wool t-shirt and layer my other Patagonia fleece jacket. We’ll see how this works out in practice, however.
After a year or so of considering it, I finally bought a Dymotec 6 Bottle Generator, thanks to a good deal that came across the Bicyle Lifestyle mailing list. For $60, I got the generator, a Dynamohalter for attaching it to my frame, a wire roller, and (best of all) a Lumotec Oval Plus light. Mounting the dynamo didn’t take much, but it did take some creativity to mount the light around my front basket. I finally succeed with a p-clamp on the fork blade, though I suspect I will tweak the setup a bit. Ideally, I’d get a new fork for the Surly (or, hey, maybe a new frame and fork that is better suited to all the doo-dads on my bike) with canti posts, then allowing my use a Dynashoe mount for both the generator and the light. Clean, very clean.
I suspect that Daylight Savings Time next week will be the big, big test of the system. I did, however, use the light and dynamo yesterday since it was still dark and sprinkling when I left for the office. I swapped out the standard rubber roller for the wire model, since this is supposed to prevent slippage in the rain. Indeed, it did. Apparently, the dynamo shifted a bit (or I didn’t have it aligned quite right) since my rear tires has a bit of wear in the sidewall. I was concerned about using my Paselas with the wire roller, considering the sidewall is quite supple and the tread doesn’t include a dynamo track. The light itself is quite bright, and the standlight feature (a small capacitor and LED keep the lamp illuminated when I am stopped) is nice to have–I won’t have to keep a battery-powered backup light on so I can be seen when I am stopped. I certainly noticed some resistance with the dynamo engaged (though I suspect I had the pressure a bit too high, too), but when you’re riding a fixed gear with 20 pounds of stuff in the front basket, it’s just a drop in the bucket.
Once DST hits, expect a full review and some photos of the setup.
Posted on 2 November 2007